The swarm

A swarm of commentary and coverage has followed the release of the most recent pastoral statement by the CBCP. The President’s allies are singing the bishops’ Hosannahs, while her critics sing a kind of funerary dirge. The bishops’ gambit seems to have saved the Queen. One trend is the view held by some, that the bishops are actually headed in a radical direction.

The bishops, in light of the jockeying to claim their statement as supportive of one camp or the other, have tried to issue clarifications.

Press coverage of Palace enticements and internal debates among the prelates continues to be brisk.

More revelations on what transpired in February. The Chief of Staff is retiring under a cloud, probably to the Palace’s delight.

Commission on Human Rights isn’t happy, though.

I don’t know if announcements such as exposing an alleged plot to seize the Batasan Pambansa and hold members of Congress at gunpoint, are really going to rally the faithful. Some, but I’d have thought that if anything would be popular on both sides of the aisles, it would be holding Congress hostage. Neither does exposing alleged plans to seize the Palace: who will die for the President if she calls for a defense? That’s what I’d like to know.

Updates: Jesse Lapus appointed Education Secretary: number of votes required for impeachment goes down to 77.

Joc-Joc Bolante, according to radio reports, has been apprehended in Los Angeles.

An important archeological site in Cagayan de Oro, destroyed?

The Mexican presidential standoff.

Should a letter from Thaksin to Dubya be publicized?

In the punditocracy, my Arab News column for this week is Arroyo Trumped Hyatt 10 Not With Competence but With Appearances. Naturally, Emil Jurado takes a different view of the Hyatt 10.

As the Inquirer editorial suggests, one of the debates is over where the bishops feel people should go, if they think impeachment will be useless if conducted the way it was last year. BenCyrus G. Ellorin has similar concerns.

Conrado de Quiros and Mike Tan delve into the pastoral statement, echoing a general concern: in trying to be unambiguous, the bishops sowed confusion. Bong Austero, on the other hand, thinks the bishops make sense (he emphasizes, too, he shouldn’t be considered a supporter of the President).

Manuel Buencamino pens an open letter to One Voice, challenging the idea of 2007 as an indirect referendum.

Amando Doronila says it’s clear a “Left-Right Conspiracy” did not exist; and that the President’s support is more fragile than previously thought.

Will have to do blogosphere wrap-up next time.

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

62 thoughts on “The swarm

  1. Where are the “snitches 10” today?
    Seems like others have “moved on”.
    While others are still at it “hard selling” themselves.
    They tried to bring down GMA, but the only thing they really succeded in doing was bring down the economy.
    Are they trying to sell themselves as some sort of “heros”
    Then godforbid that we really are a screwed nation if they are the kind of charcters who are important.
    The real people who make up this nation are those who don’t go around complaining & specializing in looking for all defects & faults.
    The real people who will make a difference in building this nation are not those who go on “insisting on their rights left & right”
    The real people of this nation are not those who specialize in jumping into conclussions & dramatizing matters for political ends.
    The real people of this nation are those who can’t probably write well or express themselves well.
    The real patriots of this nation are honest taxi driver, the messenger, a Manny P. who does things to bring pride to the Nation.
    The so many people who will never be recognized for their heroic acts.
    Perhaps because there are some charcters who just “know it all” & have all the answers but surely can not represent those who work silently in humility.
    They just have to give the fault to anybody but look at themselves first & ask themselves – what is it really they are doing & where they are going ?
    Many signs of a values screwed-up society.
    Using democracy & freedom as an eternal excuse but it really destroying things then just leading us somewhere.

  2. Bong Austero does not support GMA but he supports the status quo. Like the CBCP he pretends that we are still searching for the truth. We heard the tapes. We know the truth. What we want now is to move on. To the next step. To bring criminals to justice.

    I went to uistero’s blog and asked him about his initial reaction to the Garci tapes. He ignored me. Just like Carl, anonio and the rest of Luli’s keyboard warriors.

    Boys, konting transparency lang sana. Huwag magtapon ng putik yun mga nakababad sa putikan ng Pasig..

  3. manuel, obsession is getting the better of you. Take time to smell the flowers. Life goes on . . . and there’s much more to living than your magnificent obsession. You’re nursing a major hung up, dude. Hope you get over it.

  4. Joc-Joc Bolante, according to radio reports, has been apprehended in Los Angeles.

    The purveyor of government, um, fertilizer? For what, pray tell.

  5. Sabi ni Austero lahat raw mandaraya katulad ni ARroyo:

    They say that all they want is to know the truth about whether the President cheated in the last elections. Duh. We already know the truth— everyone cheats during elections in this country and I dare any politician to come forward to claim that he or she is clean. All candidates, and I do mean ALL candidates, violate election laws— from the printing and posting of posters, to the distribution of sample ballots, to vote-buying, etc. So instead of asking the obvious, how about asking a more sincere and proactive question: since we all cheat during elections, how do we make sure that cheating is eradicated from our system?

    You don’t want to be considered pro-Arroyo, yet come up with this BS.

    I can’t think of any candidate in the recent elections who did not at least print and post his/her campaign posters during the elections or distribute sample ballots. So that makes them all “cheaters” too huh, just as bad as your president ARroyo?

    But how about “stealing” elections? Is everybody else into it like your president Arroyo? Does anybody else have a COMELEC/Military dagdag bawas operation similar to Garci and Arroyo’s?

  6. It also looks like a swarm of battle fronts to fight.

    There’s the Impeachment battle.
    There’s the battle for Electoral Reforms and to oust Comelec officials before next year’s elections.
    There’s the coming 2007 Election campaign and the battle to kick out GMA supporters from elected positions.
    There’s the Peoples’ Initiative/Con-Ass/Cha Cha.
    And ultimately, the expected battle to be fought at the Supreme Court to settle most of these battles.

    It looks daunting. But I believe that the most critical battle is the Cha-Cha. The Gloria-De Venecia-Ramos-Lambino Cha-Cha combine will have to be defeated.

    Once the Cha Cha is defeated, the Queen is checkmated. Her over-all objective to escape justice and for her and De Venecia caboodle to reign “forever” is also checkmated.

    However, if the Queen wins the Cha-Cha battle, and the parliamentary form of government is put into effect, and there’s no more checks and balances, this country will go down the drain faster than you can say “Pidal”.

    So in order to defeat the Queen at Cha-Cha, she must be defeated at the Peoples’ Initiative level and if not, ultimately at the Supreme Court battle front.

    No need to despair that the CBCP has done what it did. There are still enough bishops and priests out there who individually can and will join the battle against Cha-Cha. Perhaps this is what the bishops were thinking. The battle to impeach the Queen can’t be won. But she can be defeated in the very critical Cha-Cha front.

    Battle forces must therefore be concentrated on crushing Cha-Cha.

  7. Carl,

    I know it’s red and it looks like a rose and a rose by any other name is just as sweet but that bloom you’re smelling is not a rose, it’s Luli’s hemorrhoid.

  8. Re: your Arab News Column. In the corporate world, we also have to struggle with the ‘veneer of competence’ versus the real thing. Personality issues aside, much of corporate politics is about this and i’ve seen the damage that this could cause. Gloria Arroyo is a continuing example of this brand of keeping up appearances at the expense of reality. She’s a fake president with a fake persona and it is causing real damage to our political institutions.

    Unfortunately, it is all too easy to accept what is fake for the real thing especially if the situation is muddled. I believe that those who say ‘pare-pareho lang sila’ are actually part of the problem because instead of contributing to further clarification of matters, they actually serve to muddle things further and are content to leave things in this state. Not to mention the fact that it’s a form of laziness. It would be nice to see more people like John above who backs up his views with solid references.

  9. about treating the officers like ordinary criminals: even ordinary crime suspects deserve better from the police. I really hate this practice of GMA’s administration of presenting suspects during a press conference. They are suspects, supposedly deserving of court trial and investigation, not shaming. But of course, the practice won’t stop under GMA. she loves these trophies.

  10. manuel . . . you depraved, mischievous old rouge! I didn’t know you had a thing for teeny weenies and hemorrhoids!

    There may be a glimmer of hope for you, after all. For your sanity, I can only pray that your bizarre choice of fetishes can lead you away from your obsession with midgets . . . and keep you from going over the edge. That is . . . if you haven’t gone over the edge already, poor fixated sod.

  11. Haha. No more going through the niceties of a semblance of a debate on ideas, eh Carl and MB? I assure you that it’s quite entertaining for the rest of us, but I must warn you that it gets tired pretty fast. 😉

  12. Words I’d love to hear once again, with a few obvious adjustments. At the SONA preferably,

    “The government in place after 2004 may merely end up inheriting a country as deeply divided as ever. Consequently, we may end up stalling national growth for a few years more as a result of lost momentum.

    In view of all these factors, I have decided not to run for President during the election of 2004.

    If I were to run, it will require a major political effort on my part. I’m among the principal figures in the divisive national events for the last two or three years, my political efforts can only result in never-ending divisiveness.”

    Indeed.

  13. “Amando Doronila says it’s clear a “Left-Right Conspiracy” did not exist…”

    He also said that it was more like a Rightist-Centrist conspiracy. He sure got it right on that one. With the Black & White Movement folks–the cream of the “middle forces,” the self-proclaimed stalwarts of Philippine democracy–right in the thick of it. I remember them trundling in Cory Aquino and poor Bro. Armin to the Fort Bonifacio gate, then hastily beating a retreat when it became clear that the troops weren’t going to deliver.

    It was the “Left” (i.e., Ka Bel and Batasan 5) who in the end bore the brunt of GMA’s counter-attack. The “Middle Forces” conspirators kept quiet; some even quietly (and not so queitly) cheered that the “obnoxious natdems” were sidelined so that the B&W types could now take their rightful place in the anti-Arroyo movement.

    Talk about bad faith. Hypocrisy. These are the kind of people “Leftists” (like me) have to deal with for the sake of unity in the broad anti-Arroyo alliance.

  14. The CBCP is playing politics with its latest pastoral statement. Obviously, it failed to recognize that it was Mrs. Arroyo herself who eroded the credibility of last year’s impeachment. Even assuming arguendo that those who filed the impeachment complaints were motivated by something other than the common good, it still does not change the fact that Mrs. Arroyo has to answer the charges against her, nor will mitigate her criminal liability.

  15. WAG NG MAGPANGGAP ANG MGA NAGPAPANGGAP NA ANTI-ARROYO !!! WAG NYONG UBUSIN ANG ALTERNATIBONG PARAAN PARA SA KATOTOHANAN …
    ANG KATOTOHANAN AY “NANDAYA AT CORRUPT SI GLORIA !!!” IMBESTIGAHAN AT KAILANGAN NG MA IMPEACH !!! LALONG NAGHIHIRAP ANG MGA FILIPINO HABANG TUMATAGAL SI PANDAK, KUNG SAAN SAAN GINAGASTOS ANG PONDO NG BAYAN PARA MANATILI SA PWESTO !!! AYAW NA SA INYO NG MGA PILIPINO !!! KAYA BUMABA NA KAYO SA PWESTO BAGO NYO SIRAIN LAHAT NG INSTITUSYON SA ATING BAYAN. THIS COUNTRY IS BETTER OFF WITHOUT – ARROYO, ESPERON, GONZALES’S, BUNYE, ERMITA, DEFENSOR, JDV, NOGRALES AT IBA PANG KAMPON NI SATANAS – GLORIA

  16. the Bystander,
    “Obviously, it failed to recognize that it was Mrs. Arroyo herself who eroded the credibility of last year’s impeachment”

    and is the most signficant reason why this year’s impeachment likewise has no credibility; same with the cha-cha; as was 2004 elections; as will most likely be the 2007 elections.

    Can we also attrbute to GMA’s machinations, significantly, the CBCP’s horrendous credibility crisis?!!!

  17. mb,

    Isn’t there a violation of church-state separation when malacanang is coursing donations thru the church, I think other denominations should protest, is capalla’s ngo on the take?

    The CBCP statement shooting down the impeachment is potentially subversive. The constitutionalists should protest against the cbcp statement. This is the second time the church has pre-empted an impeachment, church sentiment and pre-judging of a constitutional process has not changed, the same in both instances, Erap’s and this time, loss of hope in the process.

  18. manuelbuencamino, john, baycas, bystander,cvj, etal

    I am comforted and appreciate it that you guys who can clarify the issues do take time to share your views. The situation is understandably oppressive, and some enjoy aggravating others, I won’t call them nuts or names, whatever, mostly I just ignore them. Just focus. Most readers who just want to get to know other views have common sense and ignore those who prefer not to use it, if they happen to have it.

  19. MB,

    With your permission, I would like to make a few adjustments in your Gloria’s SONA…

    “The government in place after 2004 has been so divided that I feel I can no longer run it as effectively as I had hoped.

    If I were to continue as your President, I would require major adjustments in the system, gross efforts on your part and a great sense of sacrifice by everyone.

    While I believe that I’m among the principal figures in the divisive national events for the last few year, I am not the only one to blame – I, more than any one person in this country, have tried to do everything humanely possible to convince everybody to side with me; I have done my best for the good of the country while many among you do nothing but thwart my efforts to achieve the goals which I’ve set out since 2004.

    My government can no longer function effectively and efficiently in the face of so many distabilisation moves by so many factions in our society and by so much oppositionists in our country.

    In view of all these factors, I have decided to give you 24 hours to think and decide your next course of action. Let it be known to one and all that my patience is running thin.

    Ladies and gentlemen, let me reiterate that I shall do everything in my power to achieve the goals that I have set forth from the moment I took over the helm of government.

    In this context, allow me to borrow the words of the President of the United States: Either you are with me or against me.

    Should you decide to oppose me, you leave me no other choice but to declare Martial Law. Thank you.”

  20. bd,

    I liked dj bocobo’s description of the church as just another ngo. If the government is allowed to give money and goods to one ngo it should be allowed to give to all including religious ngos. The bribe angle to the gifts comes with the intention/motive behind it and that’s something else.

    What I think the church should worry about is its ambiguity. They might make themselves irrelevant and powerless to do make a difference. The latest papal circular tells them to get involved. The CBCP thinks it is involved but people don’t understand how because their stand is ambiguous. Sooner than later, their faithful will make decisions on their own and the bishops will be shepherds without a flock.

    People who don’t cry wolf when there’s a wolf are just as bad as those who cry wolf when there’s no wolf. The CBCP should make their call. As the tired saying goes it’s time for them to shit or get off the potty.

  21. Well, anna, you’ve just rendered this year’s sona, what will be, will be, much as we wish ‘sana GO NA’, she’ll most likely gonna stay, and how …

    GMA’s SONA, in short: “Better a Philippines run like hell by Gloria, than a Philippines run by anybody else”.

  22. ana,

    Yikes. I think I prefer to hear her say I resign. Or better yet, I surrender. Best of all, I’d like to see you give her a good head butt ala zidane. The only problem is you have to get down on your knees to do that.

    By the way, since you know Mike and Gloria pretty well maybe you can tell me if there’s any truth to the rumor that Mike married her because her head made a good coaster for his beer mug.

  23. mb, thanks
    I hope CBCP issues clarifications soon, it’s badly needed, they owe the people an explanation — atleast, shed light on the confusion generated by the statement on the impeachment.

  24. Looks like B&W has some explaining to do. First, Conrad de Quiros, now Renmin. Over at Bong’s, he also mentioned something about refusing to ally with ‘people i detest’. Curiously, Renmin’s post above is similar to Bong’s Open Letter about the middle forces flirting with military adventurism (although coming from another direction). Assuming good faith among all parties, these matters need to be clarified.

  25. Paulit-ulit na lang tayo mga kapatid. Same shit, different day. Pro yesterday, anti the nest day, pro ulit the following day, anti ulit the next, and so on…

    CBCP’s position is, kung baga sa nabisto ng speeding sa highway, guilty with explanation.

  26. Masyado naman over yang hataw ninyo kay ate glo, ms anna and mr. mb. kasalanan ba niya yan kung pandak o sungke ngipin niya? Ang lagay diyan ay over achiever si ate glo. di naman ako saykologist kaya di ko masabi kung yan ay dahilan sa likas niyang itsura. Pero sabihin niyo na ang gusto ninyo. Ang masaklap na katotohanan ay the reigning reyna si ate glo. ang galing sa politika, tawaran, bilihan, pilian at iba pa sa ilalim ng araw. Iyan nga pati langit na yata.

  27. MLQIII:

    “An important archeological site in Cagayan de Oro, destroyed?”

    Thanks for giving mention to this issue which should be very significant for us from that place in Mindanao. I personally was born close to the digging/cave site.

    Here are a few statements from the Heritage website mentioned in the article:

    “Huluga is an archaeological area composed of caves and an Open Site. The latter is the venue of a prehistoric, fortified village, recorded by Spanish friars in 1622 as being populated by 500 natives. Huluga is the home of the original people of Cagayan de Oro and vicinities.”

    “A female cranium found in one of the caves was dated by a US scientific firm — the Scripps Institution of Oceanography — as coming from AD 377. Also found were earthenware pots, stone and metal tools, possibly Indian glass beads, Chinese porcelain fragments, and vestiges of possibly Annamese and Thai wares — indications of overseas trading. The Open Site yielded potsherds, Chinese celadon shards, and obsidian flakes of mysterious origin, their chemical composition being not linked to any Philippine geologic source.”

    Hopefully this draws attention to the basic need to draw and learn from our own past. Imagine a cranium from 377 AD!

  28. Mlq3,
    Re sws survey & 2007 election/referendum

    The survey results and the cbcp statement furthers my “misgivings about this 2007-elections-as-indirect-referendum strategy: press for congressmen to favor the impeach-GMA 2006 edition … vote-out the ‘nays’ and vote-in more ‘ayes’ in the 2007 elections, to set-up a favorable count for the impeach-GMA 2007 edition.
    As a legal strategy, it is a setback…. It obfuscates the 2007 election issues and potentially pre-empts the 2007 impeach-GMA default constitutional option. Although GMA is an issue in 2007 elections she is the not the only valid issue. As an indirect referendum it cannot resolve the legal issues of legitimacy and culpability, neither should performance be accepted as trade-off for accountability.
    As a tactical move, it has not gained ground but gave up by committing in a scenario where GMA is already winning and is all-odds favored to win the 2006 impeach-GLO re-match and the 2007 elections … No COMELEC reforms are on going, on track, in-place on time.

    The driving force of any movement to break the impasse, which, more than political, is a moral impasse, should be the moral and legal principles of accountability – for both erring officials and irresponsible voters.”

    https://www.quezon.ph/?p=939#comment-25662

    A rethinking of strategy is timely. What ails CBCP now redounds on OneVoice — challenged credibility. Clarity, consistency, simplicity(B&W) of objectives & direction is lacking, what the people are hoping for.

  29. Boys, konting transparency lang sana. Huwag magtapon ng putik yun mga nakababad sa putikan ng Pasig..

    manuelbuencamino said this on July 12th, 2006 at 1:40 pm

    >>>>> but who do you think you are Manuel, para maging that these boys owe you a tranparency and explanations???? sa klase pa lang ng mga salita na namumutawi sa sa mga bibig mo….ewwwwwww dapt ka lang talga iignore no!!!!!

    ———————————————————-
    I believe that those who say ‘pare-pareho lang sila’ are actually part of the problem because instead of contributing to further clarification of matters, they actually serve to muddle things further and are content to leave things in this state. Not to mention the fact that it’s a form of laziness. It would be nice to see more people like John above who backs up his views with solid references.

    cvj said this on July 12th, 2006 at 5:21 pm

    CVJ, so peopel like are not a part of the problem and therefore a solution the teh problem???? ganun ba yun?????Sige support your claims with facts. so anong problema ng bans ana ang nasolsyunan nyo. ba matagal tagal na rin kayong nag kiclaim na kayo ang tama paraan eh….so may nangyari na ba????

  30. Eto fact in the form of a question, luli arroyo. Sino ito? “Hello, Garci… 1M…?”

  31. hey manuel. when have i ever ignored you? you’re the one who ignored my challenge to you to run for public office since you seem to know all the answers.

  32. luli, those who stay at the level of ‘pare-pareho lang sila’ normally do not contribute anything further to the discussion so important details that might make a difference are left out. For example, even assuming it were true that every politician cheats in elections, this should not obscure the fact that cheating of a Presidential candidate using Armed Forces personnel and the Comelec is of a different level.

    As for your question, i’m an OFW so to that extent, my remittances can be considered by some to be part of the ‘solution’, but as has been her practice, Gloria Arroyo is the one who grabs the credit for this to make her look like a good economic manager.

  33. But then again, cvj, those who say ‘pare-pareho lang sila’ not only could be right, but can also be seen as a symptom of something. What exactly is this ‘problem’ that they are a part of? If someone says, ‘We dont trust GMA, but we dont trust you either,’ do you consider that person an enemy? There has to be a reason why they think like that. We have to look into the reasons why the ‘anti’ (B&W, the political opposition) forces arent trusted. I think it’s because the masses do indeed see them as part of the same class that has pushed them to the edge. ‘Pare-pareho lang sila’ should not be dismissed. It’s a legitimate view. The onus is on us to convince these people that we’re on the right side and are looking out for them.

  34. Jeg, given past events, those views can be reasonably held by those who belong to the EDSA3 crowd who see this just as intramurals between different factions of the former EDSA2 coalition. (I think that is what Baylon’s column that you referred to previously was alluding too.)
    Although, i believe, even they should get down from their high horses if we want to move things along faster.

    However, i don’t see the same line of reasoning being valid when used by the anti-Erap/FPJ crowd. ‘Pare-pareho lang sila’ is more often than not used as an excuse to widthraw from public involvement which only benefits the status quo that they help create. If we want to solve the problem, we have to go beyond the level of trite generalizations. Sure, no one comes into the picture with clean hands, and may even hate each other’s guts, but this should not stop men and women of goodwill towards defining and working toward a common objective.

  35. cvj,

    good point. Abstention is also a vote.

    Antonio,
    I am not interested in running for office. Now it’s your turn. Here’s an additiona; question – did you vote for GMA?

  36. well cvj, OFW din ako and I go with Bong Austero is right when he said:

    ” It is shameless and hypocritical the way some people invoke the “truth” as absolute justification for their political agenda. They say that all they want is to know the truth about whether the President cheated in the last elections. Duh. We already know the truth— everyone cheats during elections in this country and I dare any politician to come forward to claim that he or she is clean. All candidates, and I do mean ALL candidates, violate election laws— from the printing and posting of posters, to the distribution of sample ballots, to vote-buying, etc. So instead of asking the obvious, how about asking a more sincere and proactive question: since we all cheat during elections, how do we make sure that cheating is eradicated from our system? But I guess that question requires real work for our legislators and civic leaders. It is just so much easier to just blame someone than to be responsible for the solutions.”

    That is exactly what I believe, I came from a political clan who has been in politics even before I was born, so i know very well what kind of politician we all a have. And I know exactly what i believe. The problem doesnt start with Gloria and ends with Gloria. Is start with you and me. Kaya wag ka nang magma linis and wash your hands. na hindi ka kasam sa problema. Because unless you get out of that denial, our country will never ever progress that much as a whole. Maybe invidualy we can move on to a greater heights but unless we work on a common goal, objective, and direction nothing much will happen to the country.

  37. cvj,

    Since we can’t tackle every single political criminal (election cheats and vote cheates) all at the same time, we should start at the top – we must put that horrible moral and mental political bansot in Malacanang on trial, begin with her first, then we can ask every single politician to come clean on whether they all cheated or not.

    She is the “panganay” among all these political crooks – she being at the top – and so must be investigated, examined, impeached FIRST.

  38. hey manuel, why not? content to stay on the sidelines where you can snipe and wisecrack with absolutely no accountability? me? run for office? i don’t have the wherewithal for that, manuel. maybe you can invest in me? did i vote for gloria? no. i voted for roco. want to make something of it?

  39. No earthly power lasts forever, more so if it proceeds from a questionable mandate. Sooner or later, Gloria Arroyo and all those who benefit from her and abet and/or support her cause will have to face and answer the charges. And no matter how they try to hide their crimes, the long arm of the law will seek and find them.

  40. luli, let us first start from your basic logic:

    1. all politicians cheat in elections.
    2. gloria is a politician.
    3. therefore, gloria cheats in elections.

    Granting the above, how then do you make the leap to the claim that the problem starts with you and me? We’re OFW’s, not politicians. It does not sound logical. I may have my share of sins but cheating in elections is not one of them.

    And when Bong says,

    “since we all cheat during elections, how do we make sure that cheating is eradicated from our system. But I guess that question requires real work for our legislators and civic leaders.”

    Aren’t we doing just that by taking Gloria to task? What is more ‘strategic’ than going after the biggest fish? As Anna said, first things first.

  41. cvj,

    i am not surprise at all when you are having a hard figuring out how you and i become a part of the problem. because you are just sooooo good on finger pointing! i have been reading your sooooooo good analyses on who is at fault in this blog and in other blogs for the past year. and man, you are really good at it .

    mmmmmmm maybe you should with this very basic question: whom did you vote last presidential election? then from there ask your self again on how politicians are made and who made them…..

  42. From cvj: Jeg, given past events, those views can be reasonably held by those who belong to the EDSA3 crowd…

    But you have to admit that the EDSA3/Erap/FPJ crowd is a huge crowd. In the majority, in all probability. Therefore you have the majority of our contrymen saying, ‘Pareho-pareho lang sila.’

    However, i don’t see the same line of reasoning being valid when used by the anti-Erap/FPJ crowd. ‘Pare-pareho lang sila’ is more often than not used as an excuse to widthraw from public involvement which only benefits the status quo that they help create.

    And maybe, they chose to withdraw from public involvement because ‘pare-pareho lang sila’.

    So you have the elitist middles who are reluctant to impeach GMA because it will allow Noli to be president and would rather have the status quo, and you have the masa middles who think ‘theyre all the same’. Add the ‘Erap/FPJ’ crowd to them, and there’s your ‘silent majority.’

  43. There goes the caste system again, Jeg. I just cant undertand how the “class” came into the picture in all these mess. Middle, elite, poor. upper middle class, lower middle class, the poor, the poorest of the poor, the dirt poor and teh not so poor…. I find this highly divisive in going over our problem. And i sometiems suspect that this could be the reason why are not gettiong anywhere after all those debates, discussion and exchange of ideas. Come to think of it, halos manngalahati na si Gloria sa kanyang second term ah…..

    At nappansin ko wlalng umaamin na the belong to the poor. Almost evrybody claimed to be in the middle at ginagawang jusification yung mga poor…..

  44. Jeg, Pres. Estrada achieved 40% of the vote; off and on, his base of support has ranged from 20% to that number.

    I do agree with you that the refusal of quite a few opposed to the President, to accept her Vice-President, has turned off quite a few, too.

    But in recent weeks I’ve had a chance to meet Manang Ichu and others very active with FPJ, who have been working intensely, and quietly, on showing how fraud was committed against their candidate. I have to say that while once I strongly believed that the President won by the skin of her teeth, the research of Manang Ichu and Co. has me increasingly of the opinion that there is no way the President can be said to have been elected. But I also recall the pained comments of the FPJ true believers: that no one seems to care anymore, and by this I’d assume they are particularly saddened by the unconcern of his own constituency.

  45. At nappansin ko wlalng umaamin na the belong to the poor. Almost evrybody claimed to be in the middle at ginagawang jusification yung mga poor…..

    Me. I belong to the poor, luli. You have an open invitation to visit my PAG-IBIG-owned house to verify this. 😉

    We dont have a caste system. Everyone is supposed to have equal rights and equal opportunities. But if you dont think we have a ‘class’ system, I have to suggest that you get out more often. All countries have this. It might sound circular but the reason we have division is because we have division. But we all have common goals. We just have to be less dismissive of other people’s opinions on how to go about doing things.

    MLQ3, yes the malaise of hopelessness seems to be pervading and this is something we have to fight. The CBCP’s we-cant-win-in-the-impeachment stand isnt helping any. That was a huge disappointment. They shouldve just shut up about it.

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